For this episode, I was joined by an Ex-Muslim convert Al-Muealim. Al-Muealim was a pentecostal Christian up to the age of 18 then he converted to Islam for about seven years. He later left Islam and is now an agnostic atheist and he is interested in the academic analysis of the origins of various religions. Al-Muealim was gracious enough to share with us his journey from Christianity to Islam then to losing faith.

We discussed the points that make Islam more appealing to Christians, particularly fundamentalist Christians.  Al-Muealim recounted how the idea of a single God and the preservation of the Quran lured him to Islam. We also talked about stories in the Quran that seem to have pre-Islamic origins for example the stories that were circulating in Syriac well before the Quran was written.

The discussion then moved to the evolution of polytheism to monotheism. We also talked about theophorics and how it is used to piece together the history of gods. Al-Muealim and I then touched on how Muhammad Muhammad was an apocalyptic prophet and how the concept of the afterlife (heaven and hell), and Satan/Iblis were later on integrated into the Abrahamic religions. We also discussed the parallels between the Christian version of apocalypticism and that found in the Quran. We finished off this conversation by discussing the stories of Dhul Qarnayn and Gog and Magog. 

I hope you will enjoy this episode    

Al- Muealim's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@al.muealim?lang=en

Al-Muealim's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW5_fHLQ2DvGVpCr4Agkz4g

List of books referenced:Ehrman, Bart. Forged (Book)Ehrman, Bart. Heaven and Hell (Book)Friedman, Richard. Who wrote the Bible? (Book)Hayes, Christine. Introduction to the Old Testament (Lecture series) https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh9mgdi4rNeyuvTEbD-Ei0JdMUujXfyWiPagels, Elaine. The Origin of Satan (Book)Smith, Mark S. Origins of Biblical Monotheism (Book)Smith, Mark S - The Birth Of Monotheism (lecture): https://youtu.be/PvOT6Kj8Yxk

Timestamps:

0:00 Introductions

0:34 Al-Muealim’s interest in academic analysis of the history of various religions.

3:04 What appealed to Al-Muealim in Islam that made him convert from Christianity to Islam. 

7:50 Quranic stories that were circulating in Syriac well before the Quran was written.

9:36 The Injil. Jesus in Islam and how this is a selling point for Muslims trying to lure Christians into Islam.

16:10 AI- Muealim’s position on faith

16:32 Comments from the live chat.

18:50 Monotheism - was this always the situation? 

23:17 Theophorics and how it is used to piece together the history of gods.

26:12 Comments from the live section

26:40 Exercpt of Mark S Smith speech, Source criticism of the Torah

33:40 Quran makes sense if taken as a text written by seventh-century humans

36:18 Muhammad as an apocalyptic prophet - the Meccan Surahs. Cultish traits of Muhammad and Islam.

40:58 The infancy gospel of Thomas - Forged by Bart Erhman. The Christology of Jesus in the Bible.

46:13 Comments from the Live chat.

48:33 Preservation of Quran 

51:47 Comments from the live section

52:46 Why did Muhammad not plan for what would happen after his demise?

53:36 Channel announcements - Al-Muealim’s TikTok and YouTube channel

55:05 Evolution of monotheism

1:02:28 The Afterlife - Heaven and Hell, Satan/Iblis,  Surah 87/11. The books of Moses.

1:14:05 The importance of academic inquiry in conquering religious dogma. Fighting Islamic fundamentalism and extremism.

1:21:11 Converting to Islam for the community. The conditional love and support in the Muslim community.

1:25:43 Apocalypticism - the origins of this concept and how it found its way into Islam. Presuppositionalism 

1:31:19 How Al-Muealim lost his faith

1:37:05 Apocalypticism (continued). 

1:38:40 Occam’s razor. Dhul Qarnayn. Gog and Magog

1:50:30 Final remarks

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